Storm in a Teacup @ Collingwood, VIC

I know in this blog, I write a lot about coffees. How can I not? I live in Melbourne! Coffee Snobbery of the world.

However, coffee isn’t the only type of beverage I drink with so much love and attention on a daily basis.

I grew up drinking both teas and coffees with my grandparents. If I was sleepy, I’d be given Milo and I’d go straight to sleep. If I was a good girl, I’d get to sip either tea or coffee from their saucers as they caught up with friends.

It wasn’t until I was much older that I begin appreciating other forms of beverages, namely alcohol.

So when I was recently invited to Storm in a Teacup’s Cocktail night, how could I say no?

Located at Collingwood, Storm in a Teacup imports teas from around the world. With as many as 35 teas in their little ‘bar’ it is hard not to find the tea that would speak to your soul.

In this tiny clandestine bar, big enough to fit 30 people (nearly one type of tea per person!), the clockwork team serves delicious East Meets Wests cocktail drinks. Owner and tea lover, Hannah Dupree opened Storm in a Teacup after travelling to Sri Lanka where she learnt much about the mystery and romance of tea.

She went on to explain that all tea is made from one tea plant, the Camelia Sinensis (who knew) and the tea story began in China about 4700 years ago. Through the many trade routes established between China and the world, we now have an abundance variety of teas to satisfy our cravings.

The cocktail night started with a Jasmine Gin & Tonic, which included Jasmine Tea, Westwinds ‘The Sabre’ Gin and Capi Tonic. It was amazing how the taste of the jasmine really permeated through the whole gin and tonic drink. It was very lovely and delicate.

Having satiated our alcoholic craving, Hannah proceeded to go through Tea 101 – An Introduction to Tea. It was just so wonderful listening to her passion and story come through and I think it was safe to say, we learned quite a bit about teas!

For instance, did you know that in terms of green tea, it is all about preserving the flavour when you serve? So the next time you brew this lovely cup, make sure you keep it below 80 degrees and only brew it for 1-2 minutes. The longer your brew your tea, the more bitter it would taste.

Amongst the teas we sampled were the Ancient Moonlight (from the Yunnan province – this tea had a very pure clean taste), Mao Jian (for some reason, this tasted like broccoli), Dong Ding (an Oolong which smelled like genmaicha and was my favourite tea of the lot!) and Uva Dry Season (a black tea which smelt really sweet).

After our quick tea class, we were then invited to further introduce our palate to more teatails! No one complained.

We sampled the Teatini (Delord Blanche Armagnac, Sejak Korean Green Tea & Gold Leaf) which was very strong and had quite a savoury appeal to it.

We had The Storm (El Jimador Resposado, Doman de Canton, Green Chartreuse, Chilli, Ginger, Seja Green Tea) which I found to be quite citrus-y and punchy with a slight spicy finish.

This was followed by dessert (which is always a good thing) of Chocolate Fudge Cake with Tonka Bean Cream. The fudge cake was so dense in flavour but light in texture. I swear they made it with magic.

By this stage I had quite a lot to drink, so they could have told me anything and I would have believed them. Luckily, in my alcoholic haze I still took notes 🙂 #bloggingwin

We finished off with an amazing frozen tea cocktail. Hannah mentioned that when they were creating this drink, they didn’t want the flavours of the tea to be diluted with ice. So they turned the tea into a giant ice ball and made a drink around it.

It was called Too Drunk to Drive this Russian Caravan (Vodka O, Mirto Liquore, Limone Liquore, Pennyweight Ruby, Ardbeg Single Malt, Russian Caravan) and it was a good thing I wasn’t planning to drive anywhere that night.

I had a really fun time and it was full of laughs and I gained knowledge. All in all, not a bad way to spend a work night 🙂

[Ms I-Hua attended as a guest of Storm in a Teacup and Zilla & Brook]

*Disclaimer: All food ratings & review are purely based on my own experiences and how I feel about the service, food and quality at the time of visit